rain fell in buckets just in time that we all work to home. As usual, some streets and began to drown the whole fleet started this absurd parade around looking for where to go out to the highway.
not without some hesitation, I encouraged him to a street that was not so committed. Me profile to cross the intersection, looked like a lake, and I ventured at first keeping the engine on fast.
I went the first ditch, got on the back of the side street and went back down in the second. But the second ditch proved to be a death trap. The car went into a slump immeasurable and started down and sink to miss completely under water. I felt a sound of broken iron engine, ahead, as he watched in despair as the water crept up the outer surface of the glass.
The car was out of control and the gap seemed to have no end. I descended a long way underwater, taxiing on a rocky bed with water seeping through the weatherstripping. I finally began to rise a bit until running aground in a gully of mud CHIRLA, and out of water.
vehicle went down trying to understand what had happened. This street was not flooded, across the ditch, it was a dark cave somewhere under the street.
looked back. The canyon was the clay banks of a river that ran black from left to right with good current. On the cliff and into the cave were scattered dozens, perhaps hundreds of cars stranded. Some were really old, almost all were rusted and showed signs of having been partially dismantled. All the shore like a junkyard motor.
- Boss! If it runs it will cover the water. Look it's raining a lot.
I looked inside the cave, squinting and silhouette appeared behind a faint yellow glow coming from the side.
"Look, I speak from experience. The river is full of junk that he ate the water.
- Are you from here? I asked.
"Nice. Julio, your service, "he said.
-Fabian replied. And we shook hands.
"From here, what is said here, I'm not. But did you see? Since I'm eight years ago, and the river that I know him well.
Julio was a man in his fifties, pure belly and ass. Halting the decline walked every step and wore rags that were once gabardine pants and shirt with short sleeves.
pointed into the cave and shouted
-Negrete, come there to run a car.
From the darkness came a giant. Measuring over two meters and was a bear. He shook my hand without saying a word, but I think it smiled. It was towards the rear of the car, turned his back to the trunk, grabbed the bumper of and moved about ten feet, all by himself, walking back up canyon.
-Ready Don Julio. Then we see where we put it, "he said.
As the hearing got used to the darkness, I began to discover the cave. It was a huge cave with mud walls sometimes wet, sometimes of old bricks. It penetrated perpendicular to the underground river and I could not see the end. Stuck to the walls of the cave were stationed around very precarious settlements, which were like cubicles separated by automotive scrap more or less flat. Trunk lids, roofs and doors were used for separation. People lived in each cubicle. Several of the inhabitants were at the entrance I always gave the aisle, sitting on car seats in a state of disrepair. Others roamed standing watching the scene of my arrival. Almost all dressed in rags. In the background listening to a radio telling a football game with a lot of interference.
- Where we are, Don Julio? I asked, still dazed with astonishment.
"This is the settlement of Cross-Bache said the man as he undertook the walk down the aisle of the cave. All of us here we were hitting the pothole. One day one, another day another did you see how it is? I'm eight years ago, but I'm not the oldest. I really took the river with two ribs broken. Do not know what it was. Not cure me more. But in the end and here I am healed. Eight years ago I am, now. You got lucky. Every so often we get some dead. It's a fucking hole.
walked by a surface embedded sound-absorbing panels covered in mud. The humidity was stifling. There were leaks everywhere, some important, dripping from the ceiling and the walls were large puddles on the aisle and into populated areas. Every so often we could hear waves of stench.
- Why where you can go from here? I asked. Don Julio
I looked between confused and compassionate, as if I had asked the most evil thing.
"Look, you first have to see where we put it. Where are you going to stay, where you will sleep. For the rest there is time. Yes, go to the car and remove everything you can. And close it well, with key. But rest assured, walk around Negrete dogs that are brave and scare off the kids. Tomorrow we tell Armando that you look a little. Amague
back to the car and stepped back hesitantly.
- Do you expect me here? "I said fear of a kid who starts school and fears that the mother leaves.
"Yes, go quiet man.
trotted to the car. Immediately checked that the cabin was flooded. I sat in the chair and could not resist giving starting to see what happened. Absolute death. I took the papers, sunglasses, keys and a few CDs. I missed not steal a packet of biscuits and things dry even the trunk. I closed everything and went back to the paunchy.
Now, we go deep in the street. Dwellings were separations
leaning against the cave wall, four or five meters wide. With the exception of a few, were not facing closure, and those who had had no door. There was no privacy. Another had a black and white TV, all invariably turned on and in the absence of spectators. The shacks were illuminated by lanterns, then I knew, they burned gasoline or diesel. Every so often there was any electrical lamp.
On the main street of the cave, three or four boys were playing in a puddle splashing brown swollen by rain. In one of the houses came a fat woman will cry with a provincial accent
- Stop messing with the pool, ché! Should be washed after all.
The woman was holding a little boy who did not reach the year, and apparently she was pregnant. Lacked most of his teeth.
"Ramona," said Don Julio. He has five children and is expecting a sixth. So they are. And there's a lot here. Embody is the first thing that happens and then cry poverty because they are filled children.
- How long ago is here?
-Ramona was born here. The father fell into the doldrums of a Fiat Grande Sewer 1500, I think. There coupled with a Chaco who died shortly after birth the baby. He came to Ramona to the Crossroads. But when the girl was twelve or thirteen, the man grabbed him not to shit your bones and died. So as you see, just the kid spends twenty. Now she is fat, but some years ago was a jewel.
After talking a little bit of the old charms of the young woman approached me and told me quietly.
- Do you see that morochito while kicking the water? "He said quietly one of the boys.
-Yeah, the one with the belly button out? "I looked for confirmation.
"Yes, that, the oldest one said. And stop looking at added
"It's mine.
walked in silence for a while and we turned into a narrow passage that opened to the left. The smell of human waste became more intense.
"This is an abandoned sewer out to the square. Pegaditas runs the sewer again, that there indeed, have no access. They are independent but during heavy rains, the sewage is filtered through the cracks and the smell brings it feels.
- How big is this system of sewers that you use?
-Immense. There is a city beneath the city. Not just the sewers. Over here are underground rivers, ancient tunnels, empty or half-empty webs. And to my knowledge, everything is connected. You can go to Congress to Morón walking down. Of course, you have to know where to grab. Don Julio
gesticulated and continually elbowed me as he spoke. It was brief silence and then took up the thread.
"There's a guy in Napa Dry plane was doing everything. I think it was the type mapper. I do not know if it will be over. Here we move a little bump where we fell and did not know where we are, I mean, what neighborhood sits above did you see?
- How many people live down here? Yes
lot. Who knows how many? He
silence and continued. Ever heard
-some three hundred thousand or three million, I do not remember. Many people, many people. Imagine, there are two hundred potholes Capital and say more than thousand in the suburbs. But who will tell people down here? Many are born and die many every day. And nothing is written down anywhere. Civil Registration "He does not have carcajadita-up and will not come down here to tell us did you see?
"But Don Julio, is an outrage that is all these people here living in the shit, apart from everything, and there are those monstrous potholes, swallowing cars since God knows when. How can we fix it? Then the fat
drove me almost fatherly look, as if I were a young man who knows nothing of life.
"Do not manage," he said because nobody gives a shit until it falls here.
the end of the old culvert opened an immense cavern sinking down hundreds of feet. From where we were, it was like a valley seen from the mountains. The houses are distributed without order, leaving a narrow, winding corridors that flow from time to time in alleys wide. Almost everything was lit with lanterns on gasoline and gray smoke accumulated against the huge roof of the cave.
- What is this? I asked, casting a chill.
-La Piazzetta "said Julio. Nice view right? I live here. This is the Centrito the settlement. From here there is hard to see, but beyond continues to fall and ends in an underground lake. Almost all the water we drink out of there. When heavy rain outside, the lake level rises and flooding all the houses that are on the shore. There's always some asshole that makes the house there. Oh, is that neither is leaving much space.
The fat man pointed his finger from high, as a tour guide uneducated. We started down a path that wound the wall of the cave. Every so often there are one staircase made of bricks to save some decline complicated. A long stretch of the hillside was a brick wall. The wall was very old and much was underpinned with a disorderly swarm of ties that held everywhere. Immediately after the wall, the land fell into a steep ravine that reached the first houses.
"This wall at any time comes. On the other side is active and when the sewer is filled to the brim, the pressure is tremendous and tremble all the bricks.
took us half an hour the bottom. Don Julio was panting and definitely had stopped talking. His silence on to my thoughts.
What was all this? Nourished people fall in potholes in the streets of Buenos Aires, the city had been built underground, consisting of slums, alongside rivers draining excrement from the surface. A city made for who knows how many neighborhoods, built with rusted car parts disgraced. What kind of nonsense was this? However, there stood before me the square, a black neighborhood that stretched out of sight, located in a cave whose immeasurable costs licked black layers of a potable water dubiously. View from the top, La Piazzetta was hell itself, with its fire multiply by a million street lights and smoke crushed against the ceiling without possibility of escape. Already deep in the village, everything was a swarm of ragged children playing in the mud, unaware of the sky and sun, making their games joy with no way to make raspberry to the underworld that, its mythical nature, must deal with suffering eternal inhabitants.
merged with the rust of the houses, all minds were rusty and no one spoke and out of there. What the hell can dispense with the need to escape for offenders? This can. Gradually I realized men killed in the potholes should devote such effort to live "everyday" in hell, that they had no impetus to feed the hope of returning to heaven. Some others, however, stayed because they were the devil, and in general it was difficult to distinguish from each other.
When Don Julio stopped panting, began to speak.
"Here it is always night. Most do not know what the sunlight, was born down here and not see it ever. But with the lanterns we managed fine. Fortunately we are well supplied with fuel. The gasoline business is the "Russian" Wyzocky. He has punctured the underground tanks of twenty or thirty service stations up and know how them out a day to not enliven. When I was up, the kind that worked, and he knows. Apparently, all the old tanks have leaks but losses when losses are girls not in their interest to fix them. They add water and ready. Imagine to have to fix up all the bowling.
stopped to greet a boy raising his hand ostentatiously. The other just up the thumb from his chair.
"We also have some power, because here are thick wires that go everywhere. The problem with electricity is to be distributed with cables and a brothel. With gasoline is easier, gets in a pan and bring to a car. Wheels exceed us.
Now that you mentioned, it was curious that both cars had no motor element in use. Small Square had some streets wide enough to move, but so far only seen two or three cars conspirators with pieces of body and blood drive. I asked.
-Cars that fall into the potholes are shattered and soaked to the crown. Walk no more. You can not fix almost never. And the few that will fix it to where they came.
"And the few that will fix it where it came from." My heart sank. "Go to where they came." I ran a racket marrow. "Go" "go" "go," sounded equalized in the middle of the skull.
- Excuse me? If I'm going under the car? And where do I go? "Look
Fernando ...
-Fabian.
-Fabian. ("I just said?) If you fix the car is going, yes, but it is best to have no illusions. Cases back to the surface are extremely rare and we never really know if the guy comes alive or dead. First you have the great fortune to fix the mechanics. Then we have to fight with the wiring. Usually it's all short-circuited and can not be fixed. And every time more complicated as the sons of bitches: that the power board, which multipoint injection. Today one throws a fart and a sensor that jumps for the entire car. Falling into the rut is always as easy, but getting out is becoming increasingly difficult.
"But those few, very few, that could have gone where do they go?
- So where will you go? They go to where they came. If you can fall from there to here, must also be able to go back and forth at this place. I wonder, Fernando. Nothing is lost, everything is transformed, as Isaac said Newman.
I was about to tell him that his name was Isaac Newton, Lavoisier was high and did not nothing to do with the reversibility of the trajectories. But I felt it would be like climbing Everest and he said only:
-Fabian.
- What Fabian?
-Yo. My name is Fabian.
After a while I knew all I needed. Once made up the vehicle, should take race to the river, and plunge into its waters with the highest possible speed. And once under water, should try to drive to the exit, which was seen as a hole of light, above. That was all. If he could repair the car, come out.
I felt a total peace. The gate was hell. And now he could think of other things, I changed the subject.
- Where to go, Don Julio?
"I took to Catalina. It is an old lady nice person, and you will see, his eyes betrayed a trapdoor. Recently it was emptied the nest and is sure to have a place for you.
Suddenly, from the tangle of kids, the fat girl caught pulling a half a braid undone.
- Did not the guy greetings? "He said.
The girl was about ten years old and very scared.
"Now, when I catch you again and I'll tickle.
The girl was released and fled to the race.
"In a couple of years will be about the little girl candy -Topped with a broad smile as he watched as the girl was lost in the village.
that time I wanted to get rid of that grotesque character. But I needed to get the mechanic. The mechanic would open the gate and I would get rid of that character and his world.
We arrived at the house of Catalina.
Behind a curtain of fabric that served as a door, emerged a grown woman, well past sixty. His hair was almost white-blond eyebrows and a brown almost black. Her face wrinkles sparse but thick, and were more a deepening of old features that wrinkles themselves. He had a threadbare robe ended eight inches above the knee and that was not enough to stave off mass of unsupported breasts.
I looked up and said Julio
- A Bachero newborn? Caty
"Yes, just right out of the water. And it comes at forty, I believe.
Old inspected as one buys me a slave. I turned around still looking at me from top to bottom.
- What you do not have to sleep, you?
I kept silent.
"There's languages. Will name?
"The boy called Fernando," said Julio making me a furtive grin urging me to show signs of life.
"Okay, fat, I'll take it, "said the old woman. And they went to a corner of the hut. They talked for a moment, Caty gave him a bag with clothes and went in July.
Before leaving he told me what happened
-morrow to look to see what the car.
I was left alone with the old. "Sit
Fer. You must be tired. Getting there is always a birth hurts like shit, but one gets used to the pain of living in a tomb and then left to tell. A client once told me: suffering is the subtraction between what you want and what you have, so to stop suffering, we must stop wanting what you can not have. And so we live down here, not like anything you see?. We are all Buddhist-made a chuckle, and that the majority ignores who the hell was Buddha.
As he spoke, Caty filled a glass with water half yellow.
-take, "he said. Already boiled. Here we boil the water thoroughly. Since we had the epidemic, boil the water.
I held the glass and looked at him with absolute confidence. The water had a soft aroma bath train station, and while the nose is denied, her throat was crying. Resolved the dispute covering my nose and drinking it all to the bottom as a remedy ugly.
"Stay calm. In a couple of days the smell of shit does not feel more.
I made a caress on the cheek from behind right while the left felt the slight pressure of her soft breasts. And far, far away from all reason, I did a beat incipient erection. Decided to talk to silence them. Caty
"Look, thank you very much for your hospitality, but I think leaving here as soon as possible, and I really hope not to stay those two days. And it would be very happy if I adjust the smell of the air. I'm still amazed by the existence of this world down here. When you leave I will tell them all so that come to serve. I'll make a big scandal. Caty
looked at me tenderly and stroked me more. Fer
"You know by now I was resigned to baptism," For many years I was the biggest whore of the square, something that the types and could have wished. And I heard a lot like you, new arrivals, with the plan of leave and notice. Most could not leave and for the few who were, I do not know whether to be notified, but no one came to rescue. Also, if I do not know how come they would go.
She left the chair, walked to a table and placed a large pot over a small fire.
"I am the daughter and granddaughter of Bachero. When my grandfather fell off the wagon, there were already people living here. Where do I go? You told me about the smell of shit and I almost did not already know. Who will go? "Don Julio? That is not going or fart. I like the little girls of twelve. Ends up in jail. Down here nobody cares. Are we going to get the kids? Where will they go?
chopped meat rare and threw into the pot. "From here
will not be anyone out there not because the other side but because everything is full. "You want advise? "He added. I tell you already know.
After a while we were dining in the light of a lantern that burned a dirty rag soaked in gasoline, over a table full of muffins rusty.
-The roof of a 600 plates with hammers, "he said. The legs are the original studs, "he added proudly.
The food was delicious - What is it? Asked near the end of the second plate.
-Mole with fungi. Knows you never ate rabbit rabbit?
I stayed a few seconds trying to register the mole. I thought of Topo Gigio.
"But the mole is a mouse," I said thinking aloud.
"Actually, mice are very small. This is like a mouse, but the size of a rabbit or a cat.
- Rat! I yelled and I stood up, looking at the plate. Caty
laughed pulling back his head. The old and the pot was now a witch and her cauldron.
- What did you expect Fernandito back to mushrooms? No dear. Here we eat fungus, rats, rat, yeast and fungi with rat. Another thing there is. Of course, there are a thousand varieties of fungi and each gives his treat. Did not you say you liked? Now calm down What you gonna do? And what you ate. And I calmed
What would I do? I had already eaten.
chatted for a while. He told me he lived on barter. That was a bounded but continuous exchange with the above, that for a few holes, some people from the area, mostly Asian, I went to sew and mend clothing, job change and gave him all sorts of objects: Televisions and radios used, the time of the canteen, spices, dishes, clothes, all kinds of things in general had to work hard for little, but as they are fumbling to keep merchandise that is "lost" in the round, there were so many dresses and clothes inside girl, who ended up using them as currency. Finally plotted in tune chacarera:
Two rats are three
Three rats pants, a dress
The chop with an ax
To add to guisito
The song was but I got distracted trying to calculate how many panties were a dress.
talked a long time the old, but the dinner brought to drowsiness and lethargy, sleep. And I closed my eyes in the middle of the class.
had a single bed, very big, but very one. It was made of tires flat on the floor, sound-absorbing ceiling panels, door and trunk and a few blankets to try vainly to smooth up all the above. Caty took off his shoes and lay down. I watched a few seconds and asked
- What about me where I sleep?
-A my right or left. Where you prefer.
I spent the next few minutes in a tangle of discourse, trying to explain that I wanted nothing to do with it ... but she was very attractive ... well, despite his age ... he was not noticed at all ...
-lay down Go , doze and Stop fooling around, "he said with a reassuring tone of rebuke.
I lay down and fell asleep watching a window formed by two doors with window, arranged one after the other.
I woke in the middle of the night with the heat of a wet dream and I could not help noticing that the old woman lying naked, his head nestled in my crotch, back and forth, up and down. And also, I learned that part of my body was awake before me.
cocked his head toward the window. The neighborhood was asleep and snoring. In the distance, the wall buttressed with ties seemed to explode, and its old bricks and sewage flowed from Buenos Aires, dripping in bright trickles down came together and formed a delta that was hugging brown houses. I turned my head forward. The thing was getting pretty. For a moment I forgot about the bump, the cave, rats and shit down like a river right there took me to the mattress old tires. What would I do?
We were lying on your back looking at ways of smoke that covers the roof of the cave. Caty
wanted to talk.
- Do you know? Since leaving prostitution me wanting to get back. Look who is fucking human. Old now I lavish free than previously charged a penny. He
silence like waiting for the counterpoint. I remained silent.
"And the worst is that there are hardly any guys. Except for those who fall for the bumps, others are dying younger and younger. That itself is full of guys. Of course, parenthood is easy and even fun, but raising them, that's the hard part. Most die from an infected scrape. He
inviting silence again. I remained silent and she continued talking.
He told me of a place called Napa Seca, a cave larger than ten Pavilions, populated up to the slopes and a constant tingling crowded the streets around the clock in the evening.
made another silence and I remained silent.
- Are you listening? Snapped.
-No.
"You're thinking otherwise stating asked.
"Yes.
- Let's see, tell me. What are you thinking? -Modulated with the tenderness of a man who hopes to finally broken, banished to hell, longing for paradise, baring his soul jerking sobs.
I squinted and dispatched me to the problem. "If two rats
are three pants and three rats a dress, then a dress pants are four and a half right?
"Yes, it can be said with disappointment.
"Tell me, Caty, Why not adopt directly the equivalence of a simple five-dress pants? Caty
hesitated and asked, genuinely interested.
- And as payment a rat?
had not thought of that.
- Now as the payment? I asked.
"With a dress and three panties back. And I fucked
.
not without some hesitation, I encouraged him to a street that was not so committed. Me profile to cross the intersection, looked like a lake, and I ventured at first keeping the engine on fast.
I went the first ditch, got on the back of the side street and went back down in the second. But the second ditch proved to be a death trap. The car went into a slump immeasurable and started down and sink to miss completely under water. I felt a sound of broken iron engine, ahead, as he watched in despair as the water crept up the outer surface of the glass.
The car was out of control and the gap seemed to have no end. I descended a long way underwater, taxiing on a rocky bed with water seeping through the weatherstripping. I finally began to rise a bit until running aground in a gully of mud CHIRLA, and out of water.
vehicle went down trying to understand what had happened. This street was not flooded, across the ditch, it was a dark cave somewhere under the street.
looked back. The canyon was the clay banks of a river that ran black from left to right with good current. On the cliff and into the cave were scattered dozens, perhaps hundreds of cars stranded. Some were really old, almost all were rusted and showed signs of having been partially dismantled. All the shore like a junkyard motor.
- Boss! If it runs it will cover the water. Look it's raining a lot.
I looked inside the cave, squinting and silhouette appeared behind a faint yellow glow coming from the side.
"Look, I speak from experience. The river is full of junk that he ate the water.
- Are you from here? I asked.
"Nice. Julio, your service, "he said.
-Fabian replied. And we shook hands.
"From here, what is said here, I'm not. But did you see? Since I'm eight years ago, and the river that I know him well.
Julio was a man in his fifties, pure belly and ass. Halting the decline walked every step and wore rags that were once gabardine pants and shirt with short sleeves.
pointed into the cave and shouted
-Negrete, come there to run a car.
From the darkness came a giant. Measuring over two meters and was a bear. He shook my hand without saying a word, but I think it smiled. It was towards the rear of the car, turned his back to the trunk, grabbed the bumper of and moved about ten feet, all by himself, walking back up canyon.
-Ready Don Julio. Then we see where we put it, "he said.
As the hearing got used to the darkness, I began to discover the cave. It was a huge cave with mud walls sometimes wet, sometimes of old bricks. It penetrated perpendicular to the underground river and I could not see the end. Stuck to the walls of the cave were stationed around very precarious settlements, which were like cubicles separated by automotive scrap more or less flat. Trunk lids, roofs and doors were used for separation. People lived in each cubicle. Several of the inhabitants were at the entrance I always gave the aisle, sitting on car seats in a state of disrepair. Others roamed standing watching the scene of my arrival. Almost all dressed in rags. In the background listening to a radio telling a football game with a lot of interference.
- Where we are, Don Julio? I asked, still dazed with astonishment.
"This is the settlement of Cross-Bache said the man as he undertook the walk down the aisle of the cave. All of us here we were hitting the pothole. One day one, another day another did you see how it is? I'm eight years ago, but I'm not the oldest. I really took the river with two ribs broken. Do not know what it was. Not cure me more. But in the end and here I am healed. Eight years ago I am, now. You got lucky. Every so often we get some dead. It's a fucking hole.
walked by a surface embedded sound-absorbing panels covered in mud. The humidity was stifling. There were leaks everywhere, some important, dripping from the ceiling and the walls were large puddles on the aisle and into populated areas. Every so often we could hear waves of stench.
- Why where you can go from here? I asked. Don Julio
I looked between confused and compassionate, as if I had asked the most evil thing.
"Look, you first have to see where we put it. Where are you going to stay, where you will sleep. For the rest there is time. Yes, go to the car and remove everything you can. And close it well, with key. But rest assured, walk around Negrete dogs that are brave and scare off the kids. Tomorrow we tell Armando that you look a little. Amague
back to the car and stepped back hesitantly.
- Do you expect me here? "I said fear of a kid who starts school and fears that the mother leaves.
"Yes, go quiet man.
trotted to the car. Immediately checked that the cabin was flooded. I sat in the chair and could not resist giving starting to see what happened. Absolute death. I took the papers, sunglasses, keys and a few CDs. I missed not steal a packet of biscuits and things dry even the trunk. I closed everything and went back to the paunchy.
Now, we go deep in the street. Dwellings were separations
leaning against the cave wall, four or five meters wide. With the exception of a few, were not facing closure, and those who had had no door. There was no privacy. Another had a black and white TV, all invariably turned on and in the absence of spectators. The shacks were illuminated by lanterns, then I knew, they burned gasoline or diesel. Every so often there was any electrical lamp.
On the main street of the cave, three or four boys were playing in a puddle splashing brown swollen by rain. In one of the houses came a fat woman will cry with a provincial accent
- Stop messing with the pool, ché! Should be washed after all.
The woman was holding a little boy who did not reach the year, and apparently she was pregnant. Lacked most of his teeth.
"Ramona," said Don Julio. He has five children and is expecting a sixth. So they are. And there's a lot here. Embody is the first thing that happens and then cry poverty because they are filled children.
- How long ago is here?
-Ramona was born here. The father fell into the doldrums of a Fiat Grande Sewer 1500, I think. There coupled with a Chaco who died shortly after birth the baby. He came to Ramona to the Crossroads. But when the girl was twelve or thirteen, the man grabbed him not to shit your bones and died. So as you see, just the kid spends twenty. Now she is fat, but some years ago was a jewel.
After talking a little bit of the old charms of the young woman approached me and told me quietly.
- Do you see that morochito while kicking the water? "He said quietly one of the boys.
-Yeah, the one with the belly button out? "I looked for confirmation.
"Yes, that, the oldest one said. And stop looking at added
"It's mine.
walked in silence for a while and we turned into a narrow passage that opened to the left. The smell of human waste became more intense.
"This is an abandoned sewer out to the square. Pegaditas runs the sewer again, that there indeed, have no access. They are independent but during heavy rains, the sewage is filtered through the cracks and the smell brings it feels.
- How big is this system of sewers that you use?
-Immense. There is a city beneath the city. Not just the sewers. Over here are underground rivers, ancient tunnels, empty or half-empty webs. And to my knowledge, everything is connected. You can go to Congress to Morón walking down. Of course, you have to know where to grab. Don Julio
gesticulated and continually elbowed me as he spoke. It was brief silence and then took up the thread.
"There's a guy in Napa Dry plane was doing everything. I think it was the type mapper. I do not know if it will be over. Here we move a little bump where we fell and did not know where we are, I mean, what neighborhood sits above did you see?
- How many people live down here? Yes
lot. Who knows how many? He
silence and continued. Ever heard
-some three hundred thousand or three million, I do not remember. Many people, many people. Imagine, there are two hundred potholes Capital and say more than thousand in the suburbs. But who will tell people down here? Many are born and die many every day. And nothing is written down anywhere. Civil Registration "He does not have carcajadita-up and will not come down here to tell us did you see?
"But Don Julio, is an outrage that is all these people here living in the shit, apart from everything, and there are those monstrous potholes, swallowing cars since God knows when. How can we fix it? Then the fat
drove me almost fatherly look, as if I were a young man who knows nothing of life.
"Do not manage," he said because nobody gives a shit until it falls here.
the end of the old culvert opened an immense cavern sinking down hundreds of feet. From where we were, it was like a valley seen from the mountains. The houses are distributed without order, leaving a narrow, winding corridors that flow from time to time in alleys wide. Almost everything was lit with lanterns on gasoline and gray smoke accumulated against the huge roof of the cave.
- What is this? I asked, casting a chill.
-La Piazzetta "said Julio. Nice view right? I live here. This is the Centrito the settlement. From here there is hard to see, but beyond continues to fall and ends in an underground lake. Almost all the water we drink out of there. When heavy rain outside, the lake level rises and flooding all the houses that are on the shore. There's always some asshole that makes the house there. Oh, is that neither is leaving much space.
The fat man pointed his finger from high, as a tour guide uneducated. We started down a path that wound the wall of the cave. Every so often there are one staircase made of bricks to save some decline complicated. A long stretch of the hillside was a brick wall. The wall was very old and much was underpinned with a disorderly swarm of ties that held everywhere. Immediately after the wall, the land fell into a steep ravine that reached the first houses.
"This wall at any time comes. On the other side is active and when the sewer is filled to the brim, the pressure is tremendous and tremble all the bricks.
took us half an hour the bottom. Don Julio was panting and definitely had stopped talking. His silence on to my thoughts.
What was all this? Nourished people fall in potholes in the streets of Buenos Aires, the city had been built underground, consisting of slums, alongside rivers draining excrement from the surface. A city made for who knows how many neighborhoods, built with rusted car parts disgraced. What kind of nonsense was this? However, there stood before me the square, a black neighborhood that stretched out of sight, located in a cave whose immeasurable costs licked black layers of a potable water dubiously. View from the top, La Piazzetta was hell itself, with its fire multiply by a million street lights and smoke crushed against the ceiling without possibility of escape. Already deep in the village, everything was a swarm of ragged children playing in the mud, unaware of the sky and sun, making their games joy with no way to make raspberry to the underworld that, its mythical nature, must deal with suffering eternal inhabitants.
merged with the rust of the houses, all minds were rusty and no one spoke and out of there. What the hell can dispense with the need to escape for offenders? This can. Gradually I realized men killed in the potholes should devote such effort to live "everyday" in hell, that they had no impetus to feed the hope of returning to heaven. Some others, however, stayed because they were the devil, and in general it was difficult to distinguish from each other.
When Don Julio stopped panting, began to speak.
"Here it is always night. Most do not know what the sunlight, was born down here and not see it ever. But with the lanterns we managed fine. Fortunately we are well supplied with fuel. The gasoline business is the "Russian" Wyzocky. He has punctured the underground tanks of twenty or thirty service stations up and know how them out a day to not enliven. When I was up, the kind that worked, and he knows. Apparently, all the old tanks have leaks but losses when losses are girls not in their interest to fix them. They add water and ready. Imagine to have to fix up all the bowling.
stopped to greet a boy raising his hand ostentatiously. The other just up the thumb from his chair.
"We also have some power, because here are thick wires that go everywhere. The problem with electricity is to be distributed with cables and a brothel. With gasoline is easier, gets in a pan and bring to a car. Wheels exceed us.
Now that you mentioned, it was curious that both cars had no motor element in use. Small Square had some streets wide enough to move, but so far only seen two or three cars conspirators with pieces of body and blood drive. I asked.
-Cars that fall into the potholes are shattered and soaked to the crown. Walk no more. You can not fix almost never. And the few that will fix it to where they came.
"And the few that will fix it where it came from." My heart sank. "Go to where they came." I ran a racket marrow. "Go" "go" "go," sounded equalized in the middle of the skull.
- Excuse me? If I'm going under the car? And where do I go? "Look
Fernando ...
-Fabian.
-Fabian. ("I just said?) If you fix the car is going, yes, but it is best to have no illusions. Cases back to the surface are extremely rare and we never really know if the guy comes alive or dead. First you have the great fortune to fix the mechanics. Then we have to fight with the wiring. Usually it's all short-circuited and can not be fixed. And every time more complicated as the sons of bitches: that the power board, which multipoint injection. Today one throws a fart and a sensor that jumps for the entire car. Falling into the rut is always as easy, but getting out is becoming increasingly difficult.
"But those few, very few, that could have gone where do they go?
- So where will you go? They go to where they came. If you can fall from there to here, must also be able to go back and forth at this place. I wonder, Fernando. Nothing is lost, everything is transformed, as Isaac said Newman.
I was about to tell him that his name was Isaac Newton, Lavoisier was high and did not nothing to do with the reversibility of the trajectories. But I felt it would be like climbing Everest and he said only:
-Fabian.
- What Fabian?
-Yo. My name is Fabian.
After a while I knew all I needed. Once made up the vehicle, should take race to the river, and plunge into its waters with the highest possible speed. And once under water, should try to drive to the exit, which was seen as a hole of light, above. That was all. If he could repair the car, come out.
I felt a total peace. The gate was hell. And now he could think of other things, I changed the subject.
- Where to go, Don Julio?
"I took to Catalina. It is an old lady nice person, and you will see, his eyes betrayed a trapdoor. Recently it was emptied the nest and is sure to have a place for you.
Suddenly, from the tangle of kids, the fat girl caught pulling a half a braid undone.
- Did not the guy greetings? "He said.
The girl was about ten years old and very scared.
"Now, when I catch you again and I'll tickle.
The girl was released and fled to the race.
"In a couple of years will be about the little girl candy -Topped with a broad smile as he watched as the girl was lost in the village.
that time I wanted to get rid of that grotesque character. But I needed to get the mechanic. The mechanic would open the gate and I would get rid of that character and his world.
We arrived at the house of Catalina.
Behind a curtain of fabric that served as a door, emerged a grown woman, well past sixty. His hair was almost white-blond eyebrows and a brown almost black. Her face wrinkles sparse but thick, and were more a deepening of old features that wrinkles themselves. He had a threadbare robe ended eight inches above the knee and that was not enough to stave off mass of unsupported breasts.
I looked up and said Julio
- A Bachero newborn? Caty
"Yes, just right out of the water. And it comes at forty, I believe.
Old inspected as one buys me a slave. I turned around still looking at me from top to bottom.
- What you do not have to sleep, you?
I kept silent.
"There's languages. Will name?
"The boy called Fernando," said Julio making me a furtive grin urging me to show signs of life.
"Okay, fat, I'll take it, "said the old woman. And they went to a corner of the hut. They talked for a moment, Caty gave him a bag with clothes and went in July.
Before leaving he told me what happened
-morrow to look to see what the car.
I was left alone with the old. "Sit
Fer. You must be tired. Getting there is always a birth hurts like shit, but one gets used to the pain of living in a tomb and then left to tell. A client once told me: suffering is the subtraction between what you want and what you have, so to stop suffering, we must stop wanting what you can not have. And so we live down here, not like anything you see?. We are all Buddhist-made a chuckle, and that the majority ignores who the hell was Buddha.
As he spoke, Caty filled a glass with water half yellow.
-take, "he said. Already boiled. Here we boil the water thoroughly. Since we had the epidemic, boil the water.
I held the glass and looked at him with absolute confidence. The water had a soft aroma bath train station, and while the nose is denied, her throat was crying. Resolved the dispute covering my nose and drinking it all to the bottom as a remedy ugly.
"Stay calm. In a couple of days the smell of shit does not feel more.
I made a caress on the cheek from behind right while the left felt the slight pressure of her soft breasts. And far, far away from all reason, I did a beat incipient erection. Decided to talk to silence them. Caty
"Look, thank you very much for your hospitality, but I think leaving here as soon as possible, and I really hope not to stay those two days. And it would be very happy if I adjust the smell of the air. I'm still amazed by the existence of this world down here. When you leave I will tell them all so that come to serve. I'll make a big scandal. Caty
looked at me tenderly and stroked me more. Fer
"You know by now I was resigned to baptism," For many years I was the biggest whore of the square, something that the types and could have wished. And I heard a lot like you, new arrivals, with the plan of leave and notice. Most could not leave and for the few who were, I do not know whether to be notified, but no one came to rescue. Also, if I do not know how come they would go.
She left the chair, walked to a table and placed a large pot over a small fire.
"I am the daughter and granddaughter of Bachero. When my grandfather fell off the wagon, there were already people living here. Where do I go? You told me about the smell of shit and I almost did not already know. Who will go? "Don Julio? That is not going or fart. I like the little girls of twelve. Ends up in jail. Down here nobody cares. Are we going to get the kids? Where will they go?
chopped meat rare and threw into the pot. "From here
will not be anyone out there not because the other side but because everything is full. "You want advise? "He added. I tell you already know.
After a while we were dining in the light of a lantern that burned a dirty rag soaked in gasoline, over a table full of muffins rusty.
-The roof of a 600 plates with hammers, "he said. The legs are the original studs, "he added proudly.
The food was delicious - What is it? Asked near the end of the second plate.
-Mole with fungi. Knows you never ate rabbit rabbit?
I stayed a few seconds trying to register the mole. I thought of Topo Gigio.
"But the mole is a mouse," I said thinking aloud.
"Actually, mice are very small. This is like a mouse, but the size of a rabbit or a cat.
- Rat! I yelled and I stood up, looking at the plate. Caty
laughed pulling back his head. The old and the pot was now a witch and her cauldron.
- What did you expect Fernandito back to mushrooms? No dear. Here we eat fungus, rats, rat, yeast and fungi with rat. Another thing there is. Of course, there are a thousand varieties of fungi and each gives his treat. Did not you say you liked? Now calm down What you gonna do? And what you ate. And I calmed
What would I do? I had already eaten.
chatted for a while. He told me he lived on barter. That was a bounded but continuous exchange with the above, that for a few holes, some people from the area, mostly Asian, I went to sew and mend clothing, job change and gave him all sorts of objects: Televisions and radios used, the time of the canteen, spices, dishes, clothes, all kinds of things in general had to work hard for little, but as they are fumbling to keep merchandise that is "lost" in the round, there were so many dresses and clothes inside girl, who ended up using them as currency. Finally plotted in tune chacarera:
Two rats are three
Three rats pants, a dress
The chop with an ax
To add to guisito
The song was but I got distracted trying to calculate how many panties were a dress.
talked a long time the old, but the dinner brought to drowsiness and lethargy, sleep. And I closed my eyes in the middle of the class.
had a single bed, very big, but very one. It was made of tires flat on the floor, sound-absorbing ceiling panels, door and trunk and a few blankets to try vainly to smooth up all the above. Caty took off his shoes and lay down. I watched a few seconds and asked
- What about me where I sleep?
-A my right or left. Where you prefer.
I spent the next few minutes in a tangle of discourse, trying to explain that I wanted nothing to do with it ... but she was very attractive ... well, despite his age ... he was not noticed at all ...
-lay down Go , doze and Stop fooling around, "he said with a reassuring tone of rebuke.
I lay down and fell asleep watching a window formed by two doors with window, arranged one after the other.
I woke in the middle of the night with the heat of a wet dream and I could not help noticing that the old woman lying naked, his head nestled in my crotch, back and forth, up and down. And also, I learned that part of my body was awake before me.
cocked his head toward the window. The neighborhood was asleep and snoring. In the distance, the wall buttressed with ties seemed to explode, and its old bricks and sewage flowed from Buenos Aires, dripping in bright trickles down came together and formed a delta that was hugging brown houses. I turned my head forward. The thing was getting pretty. For a moment I forgot about the bump, the cave, rats and shit down like a river right there took me to the mattress old tires. What would I do?
We were lying on your back looking at ways of smoke that covers the roof of the cave. Caty
wanted to talk.
- Do you know? Since leaving prostitution me wanting to get back. Look who is fucking human. Old now I lavish free than previously charged a penny. He
silence like waiting for the counterpoint. I remained silent.
"And the worst is that there are hardly any guys. Except for those who fall for the bumps, others are dying younger and younger. That itself is full of guys. Of course, parenthood is easy and even fun, but raising them, that's the hard part. Most die from an infected scrape. He
inviting silence again. I remained silent and she continued talking.
He told me of a place called Napa Seca, a cave larger than ten Pavilions, populated up to the slopes and a constant tingling crowded the streets around the clock in the evening.
made another silence and I remained silent.
- Are you listening? Snapped.
-No.
"You're thinking otherwise stating asked.
"Yes.
- Let's see, tell me. What are you thinking? -Modulated with the tenderness of a man who hopes to finally broken, banished to hell, longing for paradise, baring his soul jerking sobs.
I squinted and dispatched me to the problem. "If two rats
are three pants and three rats a dress, then a dress pants are four and a half right?
"Yes, it can be said with disappointment.
"Tell me, Caty, Why not adopt directly the equivalence of a simple five-dress pants? Caty
hesitated and asked, genuinely interested.
- And as payment a rat?
had not thought of that.
- Now as the payment? I asked.
"With a dress and three panties back. And I fucked
.
side I stood, looking out the window and went back to sleep.
After two hours of heavy sleep, the old and I jumped out of bed shaken by a prolonged roar and noise of big things that got broken. I looked out the window with a headache that gets to the soul and a truck wheel drawn on the back. Filled with your cream sewer stink, all underpinned with sleepers wall had collapsed. The debris rolled a hundred yards into a tailspin and shacks destroyed closer. Behind the debris broke through with a thunderous sound the abominable sewage flow, flowing like a river up the slope to be shortcomings in the plain. Half of the square was flooded.
The old jumped out of bed and began to move packages from the floor to the table. Her naked body was now the sensuality of a flatworm. The packages were piles of pants and dresses in all colors. He mountain on the table and continued piling more on the shelves a modular. The old was a millionaire. When finished save the last packet, a thick, brown water began to seep under the shade of entry.
The smell of feces slapped me I wrinkled her nose and all the muscles of the face. I managed to cover my tracks with a rag either. Later I realized that was the baton from the old. The water reached the middle of the tires and made little waves that lapped the blankets of the bed. I sat up and sank in-the velvety soft manure. I hung up the baton on the back of old shirts and pants fit me, enchastrando everything.
went outside. The neighborhood woke up with a scintillation lanterns were lit everywhere. Since the drain was broken down a good flow. Brown soup had already designed a channel running through the houses and fearless emptied into the lake. The shouting began to gain the street. A makeshift squad climbed the path of the slope and came to the scene. Soon, scores of boys was picking up a barricade of earth to seal the wound drain. Meanwhile, debated over what would be the best solution, sitting on a square in the upper area. That'sa
"Caty said suddenly, and pointed out the sewer-your door.
I looked at her with a racket which contrasted with the world.
- What?
, I believe, that takes you straight to sewer Brook. Several miles away, but if you dare ...
Of course I encouraged. We walked together to the start of the steep ravine. I gave him a kiss of soap and began to climb. From below, I hear me scream.
-I followed the course of shit, that shit gets you. I nodded
½ trunk. I got up, I filtered out through the hole of the collapse dodging the guys who were hauling dirt. For five seconds I saw the lazy flowing of a turd, and headed to the right.
After the second curve the darkness became absolute and had to grope the wall to recognize the forwards and backwards. Besides the stench, there were things that moved, I touched her legs and ran away with a tiny splash. Endured the trip thinking about his destiny, and at times humming of the farmers of the old.
After a while impossible to measure with clocks, I saw a light ahead, hitting against the next side of the pipe. Arrive at the elbow and saw more light on the next. I rounded the last bend and there in the background blinded me a semicircle. It was the end of the course. After flying from the distant sun to vent, light turned into a gold foil to the surface steaming manure. Beyond the hole lay the Riachuelo, and sewage were to me a paradise of light and color and air and blue sky. Drain the pasta in excrement and tannins and energetic arm movement to shore. What evil zombie film holywoodense, left the mud flaps covered grass mash. And like a dog scratching his back, I wallow in the grass of the bank to clean as the thickness of the patina. I was lying face up with the exhausted body and look out of focus, pinned against the roof of the world.
's odyssey was over the hump.
After two hours of heavy sleep, the old and I jumped out of bed shaken by a prolonged roar and noise of big things that got broken. I looked out the window with a headache that gets to the soul and a truck wheel drawn on the back. Filled with your cream sewer stink, all underpinned with sleepers wall had collapsed. The debris rolled a hundred yards into a tailspin and shacks destroyed closer. Behind the debris broke through with a thunderous sound the abominable sewage flow, flowing like a river up the slope to be shortcomings in the plain. Half of the square was flooded.
The old jumped out of bed and began to move packages from the floor to the table. Her naked body was now the sensuality of a flatworm. The packages were piles of pants and dresses in all colors. He mountain on the table and continued piling more on the shelves a modular. The old was a millionaire. When finished save the last packet, a thick, brown water began to seep under the shade of entry.
The smell of feces slapped me I wrinkled her nose and all the muscles of the face. I managed to cover my tracks with a rag either. Later I realized that was the baton from the old. The water reached the middle of the tires and made little waves that lapped the blankets of the bed. I sat up and sank in-the velvety soft manure. I hung up the baton on the back of old shirts and pants fit me, enchastrando everything.
went outside. The neighborhood woke up with a scintillation lanterns were lit everywhere. Since the drain was broken down a good flow. Brown soup had already designed a channel running through the houses and fearless emptied into the lake. The shouting began to gain the street. A makeshift squad climbed the path of the slope and came to the scene. Soon, scores of boys was picking up a barricade of earth to seal the wound drain. Meanwhile, debated over what would be the best solution, sitting on a square in the upper area. That'sa
"Caty said suddenly, and pointed out the sewer-your door.
I looked at her with a racket which contrasted with the world.
- What?
, I believe, that takes you straight to sewer Brook. Several miles away, but if you dare ...
Of course I encouraged. We walked together to the start of the steep ravine. I gave him a kiss of soap and began to climb. From below, I hear me scream.
-I followed the course of shit, that shit gets you. I nodded
½ trunk. I got up, I filtered out through the hole of the collapse dodging the guys who were hauling dirt. For five seconds I saw the lazy flowing of a turd, and headed to the right.
After the second curve the darkness became absolute and had to grope the wall to recognize the forwards and backwards. Besides the stench, there were things that moved, I touched her legs and ran away with a tiny splash. Endured the trip thinking about his destiny, and at times humming of the farmers of the old.
After a while impossible to measure with clocks, I saw a light ahead, hitting against the next side of the pipe. Arrive at the elbow and saw more light on the next. I rounded the last bend and there in the background blinded me a semicircle. It was the end of the course. After flying from the distant sun to vent, light turned into a gold foil to the surface steaming manure. Beyond the hole lay the Riachuelo, and sewage were to me a paradise of light and color and air and blue sky. Drain the pasta in excrement and tannins and energetic arm movement to shore. What evil zombie film holywoodense, left the mud flaps covered grass mash. And like a dog scratching his back, I wallow in the grass of the bank to clean as the thickness of the patina. I was lying face up with the exhausted body and look out of focus, pinned against the roof of the world.
's odyssey was over the hump.
piled After Hours. I walked until he found one end of the Federal. I asked him to take me to the police station. The boy spoke by radio to a head in disbelief.
"If Chief, a male.
-Brrubrrrrubrrru ... "The male is in a state ... is full of shit, boss.
-Brrubrrubrrruparrracá.
-Yo, well, the patrol did not go up, Chief.
- Brrubrrubrrubrru?
"Affirmative. To the ears.
I came for an assault truck. I hosed down naked in the courtyard of the sectional. Clean clothes and gave me great and took me to the office of a Deputy Inspector Pineiro.
"Sir ..." he read my name on paper, Ruben Fabian Lopez You mean where the fuck you got?
I explained the story in short, waiting for his surprise. The man repeated the story undaunted, summarizing a bit more.
-MHU "he said. He fell into the sewer and was with the guys who live in the sewer. Finally came out of a pipe that gives the Riachuelo. So we find it so. Makes sense.
It turned out forms without taking his eyes off and continued.
"Well, there is no crime here so that you can go. We gave notice to his wife to come here with a change of clothes. The poor woman was very worried. It is much appreciated ... I stood
Head to retire and I stopped.
-One more thing, Lopez. You know ... Check your clothes and underwear, did not find silence to beep his cigarette as he nailed me a defiant look. I did desperately memory. He continued.
- How strange no? Most people wear underpants under trousers. I do not think they exist because they were shit out right?
the rush of the flood in the square, I had forgotten his underwear in the old.
-Go-topped with leniency. And I suggest you tell your wife to another story.
I got home and I went into the bathroom. I showered to clean up the last bit of manure. The soapy water was swirling down the drain and left the world. I showered again to cleanse the soul of all that absurd nightmare. The water was swirling down the drain and my presence was clean. Then I took a shower to wash the memories, and the water came and went. Then I felt a breakdown in the womb, I sat on the toilet and dismissed all the filth of that cauldron. Press the clear water tank and a stained blue sky with the disinfectant pad and washed the pot leaving bright and fragrant, while his offensive load for the pipes sunk and disappeared with my magic dignified presence, losing God knows where, away from me, away from civilization, away from all of us. And at the end of my toilet I saw the white wash, clean, shiny and fragrant. I held the cup of mouthwash, I filled it with water and lifted it toward the toilet.
-toast to civilization, "I said aloud.
did not feel guilt. I was up. So God willed it, our Lord and Father of all creation.
The following were the days to forget and forget. Willfully forget, to forget thoroughly. I caught the memories when they appeared and imagined sinking into the ground or burst into a ethereal glitter. So I killed the pothole, to the cave, Don Julio and the old. Little by little I started getting rid of all the elements of this abominable affair. And occupying the space, my life became comfortable bourgeois River Plate, with a job, a house, a wife and children, parent meetings at school, and trips to the tennis club, and family gatherings on Sundays, and fired talks local policy.
One day I had no memories. Did not return the images or voices or smell. That day I was free. I was aware at all times and not a single memory. And the next day, and the other, and everyone else. The bump was gone. And I was happy. I opened
Half floor blinds and aspired to the Buenos Aires friend. Behind me Mozart filled the spaces of the house, at low volume, resblando gently on the porcelain. I wanted to laugh with joy and uttered a laugh. I like singing and I sang. And so, singing, I saw that on the fateful memories frozen block, work submerged in the depths of the unconscious, survived as an iceberg that yearns for the sky, bringing the horror of my throat was stuck forever in this song chacarera bitch:
Two rats are three
Three rats panties, a dress
The chop with an ax
To add to guisito
; 
